


Another Side, Another Story

by TheIcyQueen



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Gen, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-05 02:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17316122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyQueen/pseuds/TheIcyQueen
Summary: How would the events at Castle Oblivion have changed, if it had been Xaldin who'd been sent with Lexaeus and Zexion instead of Vexen? The answer is simple: The real traitors would've been eliminated.All of them.





	Another Side, Another Story

“Oblivion has _fallen_.”

From where he’d been poring over IX’s half-finished mission reports, Saïx sat bolt upright. He hadn’t heard the dark corridor open behind him, hadn’t sensed the faint displacement of air, but the proclamation sent a finger of excitement down his spine, at once scalding hot and cold as ice. _Success_. He stood entirely sans decorum, whirling around to face his accomplice and congratulate him…

But it was not Axel standing in the Grey Room.

There was a smile curving Zexion’s lips into something _horrible_ as he stood in the shadow of the goliaths flanking him. Usually the height difference made the Schemer look so very, very small, both Guards looming heads above him; but now…now it was _Saïx_ who felt as though he stood only knee-high.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he asked after a moment, voice steady and even despite the growing anxiety in his gut. “Oblivion…”

“Is _fine_ ,” Xaldin interrupted, his own grin muted, bubbling just below the surface like something molten and toxic, only barely restrained. “But could you _imagine?_ ”

“Is it just me, or did it seem as though our teammate was a little _too_ excited to hear that news?” Zexion cocked his head to the side, just enough for his bangs to shift, revealing an expression that might’ve been glee, had Saïx thought he was still capable of feeling it. “I think I even caught him smiling for a moment there…or was that just my imagination? What do you think, Lexaeus?”

Saïx thought he might’ve felt a tremor beneath his feet.

“I think you might be right.” Lexaeus was the only one of the bunch who didn’t appear amused in the slightest, face still and unmoving as though etched in stone. “Why could that be.”

“Why indeed.”

“A true mystery, if ever there was one.”

He was struck then with the terrible realization that he had missed his window of escape. If he’d ever _had_ one. The shaking beneath his feet became quaking, making it more than slightly difficult for him to maintain his veneer of apathy. A faint whistling filled the room, bringing with it a choppy gust of wind. Saïx found himself wrought to the ground—any movement at all, and one of them would bring him to his knees. And _then_ where would he be?

Like all of the others, he’d watched them spar amongst themselves: the three were terrors on the battlefield, covering the ground, sky, and ether all at once, but they were perhaps most deadly at the chess board, always ten steps ahead of one another. That was what he was facing now, he thought, the unforgiving strategy that fueled their brutal pack mentality.

“Why have you left your post?” And oh, he prayed the tightening of his vocal cords would be masked by the howling wind, the heavy tattoo of the furniture as the ground bounced it. “If your mission hasn’t been—”

“Our mission _has_ been completed, thank you very much,” Zexion’s voice dripped like venom from a viper’s fang. “The traitors have been eliminated.”

At that, Xaldin’s smirk widened to a sneer, “Well. _Most_ of them, I wouldn’t wonder.”

“ _Most of them_ ,” Lexaeus agreed.

Zexion took a step forward, then two, then three, leaving Saïx to wonder how he could move so easily against the currents of earth and wind without ever missing so much as a beat. It was as though the elements simply didn’t affect him, as though he were _above_ it all. “Which story would you like to hear first? Well, no matter, it’s not really much of a question…only _one_ is really a _story_ , per se. Let me get the drudgery out of the way…” He neared Saïx until they were only inches apart, and while Zexion had to tilt his head back to meet his gaze, it was _Saïx_ who felt he was being looked down upon. “XI and XII met an untimely end. So sad. So very, very sad. But you see, the Superior was right— _you_ were right! They had cooked up this… _preposterous_ scheme. See, they were under the impression that they _knew better_ than Xemnas. Can you _imagine?_ They were planning a _coup_.” His smile widened into something that made his face look much older than it was, never so much as approaching his eyes.

“How foolish,” Lexaeus admonished.

“What _imbeciles_ ,” Xaldin corrected, as as though it were some sort of cue, on that, the two advanced on them as well.

Saïx felt himself recoil, but to no avail. For someone so large, Lexaeus was incredibly swift, and it was by that token that he found himself forced to his knees, arms pinned achingly behind his back.

“But you haven’t heard the _best_ ,” Zexion continued, kneeling only just enough to be eye-level with him. “You see, _originally_ we had assumed it was just those two. You know how neophytes are…”

“Always thinking they know better. Questioning the order of things.” Xaldin knelt down too, and it was only then that Saïx realized he had called forth one of his spears. “As children are wont to do.”

Zexion chuckled low in his chest, “And then we got to thinking…why would someone like VIII ally themselves with a pack of turncoats, unless he too had something to hide?” He made a small, sympathetic noise of thought, “So in a manner that was—I assure you— _most_ befitting of the assignment you gave us, we took it upon ourselves to do a little…help me here, Xaldin, the word is escaping me.”

“ _Interrogating_ ,” the Lancer responded. “We did a little _interrogating_.”

“That’s it! It was on the tip of my tongue.” Another chuckle, “Would you like to know what he told us, number VII? Saïx? … _Ïsa?_ ” the last name he whispered, breath hot against the side of his face. “Do you think we even _need_ to tell him?” he asked, looking up and to the side. “I’m actually beginning to grow tired of these dramatics.”

“He knows what they did.” Lexaeus’s voice was a roll of thunder above the scream of the wind. “What _he_ did.”

He could feel the bile rising against his gorge as Xaldin pinched his chin between two thick fingers, forcing his gaze. “You wanna know what we did to him?” he asked, the question an unmistakable threat, low and gravely in his throat. “Because I promise, it was _nothing_ like what we’re gonna do to _you_.”

“You should’ve heard him _scream_ …” the grin on Zexion’s face grew and grew until it became painful to look at. “Let’s see if you can’t do better.”

Saïx opened his mouth to defend himself, to deny Axel, to say _anything_. But he found he lost his voice as he was yanked up into the air like some sort of child’s toy. After that, things went dark for a long, long while.

**Author's Note:**

> Reupload from 5/28/15.


End file.
